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Lodging ideas for the Spokane Rally

montana

New member
2004 BMW MOA Rally in Spokane July 15-17

This is posted early, so that you might join us, if you are coming from out of town.

We have started to round up a few friends for a group ride from Missoula Montana to the rally on Wed, July 14. The plan is to meet at Cracker Barrel about 8:00 am for breakfast or show up at the prelaunch roundup at Joker's Wild parking lot about 9:00 am. Both are on Reserve St off of I-90 at exit 101 - lots of food, lodging and gas available. We'll take Hwy 93 to Hwy 200 to Thompson Falls, then go over Thompson Pass and have lunch in Wallace, then ride along the Coeur D'Alene River, perhaps, arriving in the Spokane area in the late afternoon.

Instead of staying at a motel right on an I-90 offramp, which is pretty typical of the area around the Spokane International Fairgrounds and Expo Center, the rally site, here's another option.

Bear Creek Lodge near Mead, WA would make a great headquarters for a group stay for those attending the BMW MOA National Rally in 2004 in Spokane. 509-238-9114, or online at http://www.bearcreeklodgewa.com, or email: bearcreeklodgewa@aol.com. When you contact them be sure to mention that you are part of the ÔÇ£BMW RallyÔÇØ group.

Bear Creek Lodge is a full-service resort located on Mt Spokane near the State Park entrance. It is North about 30 minutes of country road riding from the rally site and sits over 3,000 ft in elevation; this area will be significantly cooler than the Spokane Valley floor, which can be over 100F in July.

I have spoken with Sam Deal, the owner. There are only 10 rooms in the lodge, ranging from single rooms to small two-room suites that will sleep as many as 8 people. The prices ranges from $49 to $120 per night; pricing is typically based on two people with a $5 per person charge beyond that. For example, a two-room suite (with Jacuzzi and electric fireplace) that has a queen bed and a double bed rents for $89 per night, but would sleep 4 in which case it would cost $99 if filled. The room charges will be billed out at the time the reservation is made, and are nonrefundable.

There are 21 camping sites for tents or RVs. This is usually priced at $20 per RV or tenting at $14 and that is priced for four people per site. This area is where Sam and I discussed setting special considerations for the motorcycle campers. He is willing to reserve the sites in the inner part for motorcycle camping and restrict vehicle camping/RVs to the outer sites, relieving traffic conflicts. This will also allow more freedom of placement for tents so the motorcycle campers can mingle. There is parking available on the perimeter, away from the camping area, to leave vans or trailers, once motorcycles are off the trailers (not that any of us would trailer our bikes to a rally).

The lodge has a restaurant, a lounge and a convenience store on site. Wednesday is live music night. On any evening, if he knows a group is interested, he will put on a special feed - an evening bbq for example. We only have to let him know roughly how many people to provide for.

I mentioned that people could arrive as early as Wed July 14 and others may stay as late as Sat night July 17, that we would come and go in various groupings, that this is not one large group event with a set agenda.

Directions:
From I-90, take the Argonne Road exit. Go north, following the signs to Mt. Spokane State Park. It will be 22 miles from the freeway to the entrance of the park. Argonne Road will eventually turn into Bruce Road as you leave town. Go through the four way stop to the two way stop. This will be SR206 (also called N. Mount Spokane Park Drive). Turn right and follow the road 12.5 miles up the mountain to the lodge. The lodge is located .25 miles from the entrance to the park. If you enter the park, you have gone too far. A map is also available on the website.
 
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Spokane lodging

WHAT!!?? Another proposal for a "multiple camping site" Rally!

BTDT. Trust me, you REALLY don't want to go there.

:cry
 
Sam Deal told me he was already contacted by the rally committee and the Bear Creek Lodge will be officially listed as one of the potential places for rally goers to stay. I thought it might help to know more about one of the officially recommended places.

It was recommended to me by a Spokane person who responded to a request of where would be a good place for a group to stay, if we weren't interested in staying at the fairgrounds. Especially if you get 7,000 riders in attendance.

At the Redmond rally we were housed at the ski slope area by some central reservation office without knowing this was where we were being put. We were at least 30 minutes from the rally site and outside the town of Bend a bit. We were fine with it (once we found it), we had an interesting ride to and from there, we were in the forest not in the city.

I have friends asking about places they can stay and have their family join them - we're only a 3-hour Interstate trip from home while in Spokane. While some of us plan to ride over (reference the scenic route in my message above) and plan to spend time (and money) at the rally and in Spokane, the family member(s) may carpool over to join us for a limited amount of the time, also doing some shopping in the big city.

I thought it would encourage others to know more details about one of the potential places. I planned on posting a few more ideas over the course of this winter. Not everyone wants to stay near the beer tent, next to the cyclone fence that runs alone the edge of the fairgrounds, or at a motel on Argonne off of I-90.


So, I've made my reservation - I indeed do plan to go there. I don't plan on staying at the rally site 24/3. If a rally is what you make of it, then I plan to make a few days of fun out of it.
 
There is a nice cluster of motels on Rt. 2 going East (Division St), near the split/turn to Rt. 2 and Division. Next time I head over to Costco I'll get the names of them. We stayed in one of them when we were having construction done on our house and liked it. Staying there would put you about 20/25 mins from the rally site.

If you want to get further away from Spokane - and believe me when I suggest you might want to - Spokane Valley/Post Falls, ID/Coeur d Alene, ID all have lodging. Spokane Valley is about 20 mins out, Post Falls maybe 30 and Coeur d Alene about 40. Times are allowing for slow riding.
 
"Spokane Valley is about 20 mins out, Post Falls maybe 30 and Coeur d Alene about 40."

The rally site is in the Spokane Valley, very near the Spokane Valley Mall, if I remember correctly. So you need to subtract 15 minutes from the above times, or, to put it another way, the rally site is between Downtown and Division Street on the one side and the Idaho border (Post Falls) on the other side, 15-20 minutes from either direction.

If you want a chain motel experience, then any near the Argonne Rd and I-90 area will put you 3-5 minutes from the rally site. There are a few near the Marie Callender restaurant.
 
Montana said:
"Spokane Valley is about 20 mins out, Post Falls maybe 30 and Coeur d Alene about 40."

So you need to subtract 15 minutes from the above times, or, to put it another way, the rally site is between Downtown and Division Street on the one side and the Idaho border (Post Falls) on the other side, 15-20 minutes from either direction.

Not really, the times given were taking our seasons into consideration. We have two - winter and road construction. The rally will be happening during "road construction" and you'll need to allow for delays.
 
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